A look at the 20 top players in the world of Golf today: Retief Goosen
A South African professional golfer who has been in the top ten in the official world golfing rankings for over 250 weeks from 2001 to 2007, Retief Goosen is considered one of the best Golfers of his generation, winning the 2001 and 2004 U.S. Open. Retief
at age 13 got his first hole in one at the beautiful Pretoria Country Club. That was motivational enough for Retief to go ahead and win tournaments all over the world.
Retief made an outstanding contribution to amateur golf; he has 30 amateur wins and was awarded Springbok Colors. He turned professional in 1990. He was quoted as saying, “Pretty much whoever wins the tournament at the end of the week is the guy that putted
probably the best. I turned pro and won Rookie of the Year on the South African Tour and then it took me two tries at the qualifying school on the European Tour and to get my card and the rest is history. I remember winning the first time, you know, suddenly
everybody expects, well, okay, now he should win every time he tees it up, win six tournaments.”
Retief has won a major tournament every year since 1995. The season of 2000 saw him add to his list of wins the Trophee Lancome and his standing was cemented by getting his first appearance at the President’s Cup.
Retief showed his true colors as a world class player in the year 2001 which was also Retief’s most successful. He won the U.S. Open in a dramatic 18 hole play-off, which in the end he won from 2 shots from Mark Brooks the American golfer. Only 5 foreign
players have won the U.S open since WWII, and Retief is one of them.
After the major victory of the U.S. Open Retief went on to win the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond; and won his third European Tour Victory of the season at the Telefonica Open de Madrid. Ernie Els and Retief finished off the year by taking the EMC World Cup
in a play-off with Denmark for South Africa in Japan. He moved into the top 10 of the World Rankings for the first time in 2001 after he was crowned European Tour Order of Merit Champion and also winning the Harry Vardon Trophy.
Retief took his second U.S. Open title at the challenging Shinnecock Hills course, He won by 2 shots over the Phil Mickleson, Masters Champion. The year 2005 saw Retief take three more victories; First in Denver at the International, second in China at the
VW Masters and then In Germany in the German Masters.
Retief successfully defended his title in the 2006 at the VW Masters when he returned to China. Retief also captained his International team and brought victory again the Ryder cup nations Captain Colin Montgomerie. Retief then went on to win the Qatar Master
in 2007 and finished with an eagle to win by one shot.
Statistically a win at the Masters seems near as he finished 3rd in 2005 and 2006 and 2nd in 2007. Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia in 2008 is another win added to the list. The Africa Open was won in 2009 and although he did not win
anything in 2010 his performance was very consistent and he finished 10th on the Fed Ex Ranking on the PGA Tour.
Retief is definitely counted amongst the elite multiple major winners.
Tags: